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Four Ways Cornerstone Content Can Build Engagement in the B2B World

Cornerstone content has gained a well-earned reputation for being an extremely valuable part of any marketing strategy. Not only does it help CMOs to build traffic and brand awareness, but it also helps to create a positive first impression for website visitors, with the aim of converting these visits into sales.

But first, what is cornerstone content?

Cornerstone content is a piece of content on your website that is focused on your area(s) of expertise. The content should demonstrate that your company is a thought leader in your field, showcasing who you are and why your audience should listen to you. Your cornerstone content is the central hub for your website and creates the foundation for the rest of your content marketing strategy.

This piece of content should be updated regularly to ensure it not only stays relevant but that it is frequently optimised for search. Forms of content within the cornerstone piece can include articles, blog posts, videos, eBooks, infographics and webinars – the possibilities are endless – and it should be a long form piece of content to ensure as much relevant information is included as possible.

In a B2B world, where establishing trust and building a reputation of being a thought leader is key, this piece of content should be the central point of your marketing strategy. But how can cornerstone content really help a B2B CMO to build engagement with their target audience? In this blog, we’ll discuss four key ways this can be achieved.

1. Cornerstone content establishes authority and trust

As an industry leader, you know the topics and issues that your company has expertise in. These are the areas that your cornerstone content should be talking about! By demonstrating that you can relate to the issues your customers are facing and that you have a solution to their challenges, you will automatically build trust with your audience and create authority on the subject matter.

Your cornerstone content will become the checklist, the point of reference and the ultimate guide for your audience, showing that you are the leading industry expert.

2. Cornerstone content attracts new audiences

You will have a core audience that forms the majority of your sales or partnership pipeline and that regularly engages with your content and checks back for updates on the subject matter. However, the authority and trust that you build as a result of your cornerstone content will ultimately attract new audiences too.

Can your solutions help a CEO, CMO or CIO in an industry you might not have previously thought of? Are there other applications of your solution or product that can address challenges in other sectors?

Use industry research to discover who these audiences could be and then reflect this within your cornerstone content. Remember, this content should continuously be updated, so adding further insights to reach a new audience will only help the content’s engagement metrics.

3. Cornerstone content feeds the sales funnel

We’ve talked about reaching your audience, but ultimately, cornerstone content should help to feed your sales funnel.

Use your cornerstone content to gather specific insights into your visitors that your sales team can take advantage of; incentivise readers to share their details with an exclusive report or eBook and always encourage them to find out more or get in touch with the team with clear signposting.

With an effective piece of cornerstone content, your sales funnel should be full to bursting! Ask questions within your content to get your audience thinking and encourage them to get in touch if they have questions of their own to share. These additional questions and insights can then be used within the cornerstone content to add even more value.

4. Cornerstone content complements your SEO strategy

In addition to the advantages we’ve already talked about, cornerstone content is also an essential part of all SEO strategies. Cornerstone content is vital for link building; link to external sources of information on the subject to point the reader in the direction of other resources that might help them, but don’t forget to also showcase the pieces of thought leadership content or guides on your own website too.

Furthermore, cornerstone content will also drive better search engine rankings as the content will be peppered with relevant keywords on the subject you’re discussing. Make sure to conduct in-depth research on which keywords will help your readers the most. Be warned though: these keywords should only be used where they will add value to the subject. Overused keywords in cornerstone content will not help your SEO efforts at all, in fact, search engines will actual penalise websites that use keywords without intent.

Your cornerstone content should entice and encourage readers to share it , both on social media and within other sites with external links. Search engines love this, as the more the content is shared, the more trustworthy and authoritative they will think it is!

Ready to get started?

We’d love to chat with you about why cornerstone content is such an important part of your content and marketing strategy and help you get started. Get in touch!

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